SME Annual Meeting

Feb. 19 - 22, 2012, Seattle, WA

Preprint 12-010
CUT AND FILL NARROW VEIN MINING AT HOLLISTER
S. Chen, Great Basin Gold, Winnemucca, NV
R. McKinnon, Great Basin Gold, Winnemucca, NV

ABSTRACT
Narrow vein mining, with enough challenge and also where the
cutting edge technology can be applied, is still a very important and
exciting portion of the mining industry. Based on the deposit
characteristics, the most flexible mining method, cut and fill, has been
being tested mining this high grade Northern Nevada property,
Hollister, since the year of 2008. In the last three years, 254,000 tons
of ore were hauled out of the portal and 23,000 feet of development
were excavated underground with the winning of several safety and
environmental awards. Together with mine geology, the essential
segments include mining cycle, ground control, ventilation, grade
control and backfill method in cut and fill stopes were covered in this
paper.
INTRODUCTION
The Hollister Property situated on Nevadas 50 miles long Carline
Trend gold belt and located in Ivanhoe Mining District, Elko County,
Nevada (Figure 1), covers over 27 square miles and is the host of
classic Carline style low sulphidation epithermal banded veins in
Ordovician sediments containing high grade precious metal (Oelofse et
al.). The mining target, high grade banded vein systems were
developed in underlying competent Ordovician quartzite and argillite
(Oelofse et al.).

Figure 2.
feet).

Plan View Hollister Identified Veins (strike length ~3500

Figure 3. Mine Development and Stopes.

Current mine life is 8 years without counting the other 4 high
potential vein systems. Average planned mine production is 350~400
tons per day and average planned gold grade is 0.694 ounces per ton,
average planned silver grade is 3.469 ounces per ton.

Figure 1. Location of Hollister Property.

Over 30 east-west gold bearing veins have been identified so far
with different width ranging from a few inches to 6~8 feet, different gold
grade ranging from tenth ounces per ton to hundreds of ounces per ton
(Figure 2). Vein dip angles are in the range of 75 to 90 degrees to the
south.

CUT AND FILL METHOD

Figure 4 is a typical cut and fill stope layout at Hollister mine.
From the lateral or a similar drift parallel to the vein, three drifts spaced
150 feet were developed to access the vein at the main level. The
spacing, 150 feet, was limited by slushing distance from manway to
mill hole. Two accesses on the ends were entrance of the manways in
which ladders for personnel access, slides for material transportation,
pipes for water, air and backfill material pumping and also bags for
ventilation can be installed. The centre access was the draw point for
mucking broken ore out of the mill hole.

Current mining activities are focus on two major vein systems:

Clementine and Gwenivere.
The mine surface elevation is around 5700 feet. Current mining
elevations are from 4930 to 5470 feet. Mining depth is from 230 feet to
760 feet. The ore body is accessed through one main decline. Four
different main mining levels spiralled off the main decline at an interval
of ~120 feet. The level laterals were developed along the strike and in
the middle of the two vein systems (Figure 3).

Most of the vein width is 1~3 feet. Minimum mining width is

controlled within 4 feet. To control the dilution and mining width,
jackleg drilling stope blasting hole is adopted with drilling depth 6 or 8
feet depends on ground conditions.

Copyright 2012 by SME

SME Annual Meeting

Feb. 19 - 22, 2012, Seattle, WA
The following should be equipped in a stope before mining starts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

ore drift or/and long hole stopes. Normally 7 or 8 cut and fill stopes
would be scheduled or planned on production in case something
happening in one stope, miners could be moved to the next backup
stope while the previous one is being fixed.

2 aire line
Water line
Slusher and cable
Jackleg
Bolts
Mats if ground support needs

GRADE CONTROL
Grade control in narrow vein mining is and will continuously to be
a challenging and interesting topic. The Hollister property bears one of
the world highest gold and silver grade deposits. At the same time, this
deposit possesses one of the most complicated vein systems. A good
grade control job takes the effort of geologists, operations, engineers
and management. In the last three years, average gold grade of ore
dug out from this property was over 0.85 ounces per ton.

The procedures to mine the stope are (Figure 4):

1.
2.
3.

Install tag lines at the open hole areas (Figure 5)

Drill entire stope blasting holes
Load and shoot slot raise (above mill hole) and 2 or 3 rows
on either side
4. Building slide over manway on the blasting side (Figure 4),
load and blast 2/3 of stope
5. Level off blasted ore, bolt back and ribs, slush to open
manway, slush all the blasted stope into mill hole
6. Move slusher to the other side
7. Build slide over manway and load and blast the rest of the
stope
8. Level off blasted ore, bolt back and ribs, slush to open
manway, slush all the blasted stope into mill hole
9. Raise manways, mill hole, utilities
10. Backfill stope and repeat 1 to 10

Geologists take channel samples every 10 feet along the stope

and paint the vein on each cut of each stope (Figure 6). Operations will
follow the vein paint to layout blasting holes. Assay results of channel
samples would be sent back the right next day for geologist to blend
the ore and forecast the grade on the next cut and where to mine on
the next cut. Engineering would survey the slushed stope to check
overbreak or dilution for reconciliation.

Figure 6. Vein Painted on the Back.

GROUND CONTROL AND VENTILATION IN STOPE
Figure 4. Typical Cut and Fill Stope Layout at Hollister, Long Section
View.

Ground control in cut and fill stope are for two purpose, safety and
dilution control. At Hollister, whenever a personnel walks into a working
area, the first thing he is asked to do is check the ground and scaling.
Right after blasting, the ground would be checked and scaled again.
Bolting pattern on the back is 3 feet from bolt to bolt. The ribs would be
spot bolted wherever is necessary.
At one main level, when the first cut or ore drift is mined out, an
economical analysis would be performed to decide whether a concrete
pillar would be poured on this level depends on the gold grade. The
cutoff grade used for a concrete pillar is 0.37 equivalent ounces per
ton. When the drift grade is higher than 0.37, pour a concrete pillar
would be economical. When grade is lower than 0.37, a 10~15 feet
crown pillar could be left when lower level mining approaching the
current level.
Based on the Concrete Handbook Beam theory and experience,
Hollister engineers designed their own concrete pillar by using rebar
and wire as reinforcement (Figures 7 and 8).
When stopes get higher, ventilation bags can be hanged up in the
manway chamber together with the backfill and utility pipes to deliver
the air right up into stope.
BACKFILL

Figure 5. One End of a Tag Line.

Hollister is using two types of backfill materials right now, cellular

concrete and waste rock. Cellular concrete is used when there is no
stope top access or material dump access. Cellular concrete has to be
pumped from the bottom access up into the stope. Compared to

MINE PLANNING
Each stope could produce about 40~50 tons per calendar day. To
guarantee the mine production, 350~400 tons a day, 5 or 6 cut and fill
stopes should be running at the same time, other production is from

Copyright 2012 by SME

SME Annual Meeting

Feb. 19 - 22, 2012, Seattle, WA
concrete, cellular concrete has the advantage of lower cost, faster
backfill process while still can meet the backfill mechanics requirement.
Hollister site was the first underground mine in Nevada where cellular
concrete being introduced as backfill material. A lot of experience had
been gained during this process.

It is believed by the Hollister team that there is still room to cut the
cost on backfilling stopes. A special team includes management,
operations, and engineers had been put together to lower the backfill
cost and at the same time speed up backfill progress.
COMMUNICATION
With todays technology, communication will not be a problem
anymore as long as employee are given the guidance what to
communicate. Besides the countless personnel office meeting, there
are several significant meetings at Hollister related to production
directly should be mentioned here.
Meeting between shifts, this is the meeting between the previous
shift and the next coming shift. Information should and could be
passed on to the next shift in this meeting includes what is going on in
each heading, do we have any water problem, house clean problem,
ground problem, mechanical problem, any parts we need, how much
ore had been slushed/mucked out? How much is left?
Shift meeting, this is the meeting shifter assign people to each
heading, what would be their job today, what is the next work place if
they have the first one done, do they need any help to get the job
finished?
Morning department meeting, foremen of operations and
maintenance, engineers, geologists, management, safety will be
involved in this meeting. Are there any safety concerns/problems? Is
all equipment ready? What does one department need from other
department to move forward?

Figure 7. Concrete Pillar Construction.

Weekly production plan meeting, engineers, geologists,

operations foreman, and management would be involved in this
meeting. Engineers will review the last week production and put a plan
together for the next week, in which all the development and stoping
headings for next week will be listed together with the planned tons
and grades if it is an ore heading or stope. The grades will come from
geology department based on reserve modelling or pre-cut/round
sampling results. With each heading, operations will assign operators
to make sure first they have enough people for this week and second
the right people to the right heading for maximum production.
Every Hollisters meeting starts with safety and everybody in
meeting treats each other with honest, integrity and respect. Things
should be focused on are problems.
Long Hole Stoping Application
When vein is consistent in thickness and dip angle and the dip
angle close to vertical/horizontal, long hole stoping method still
possesses the advantages of higher production and lower cost.
Hollister has been using this method since 2009 wherever the vein
system is appropriate.
REFERENCE
J. Oelofse, P. Bentley, and D. Heever, Revised Technical Report on
the Mineral Resources and Reserves at the Hollister
Development Block Gold Project, Elko County, Nevada,
December 31, 2008.

Figure 8. Mining below a Concrete Pillar.

When top access is available, a waste drop raise would be drilled
and blasted, in which waste rock could be dropped into stope and
slushed spread across the whole stope length. Compared to cellular
concrete backfill, waste fill might take more time but the cost is
significantly lower.
MINING COST
The challenge, also a quite good opportunity in front of Hollister
team is to lower the underground mining cost, one major portion is
improve the efficiency, the other major portion comes from cellular
backfill.
Through mining foremans planning and scheduling, use mining
crew more efficiently, let them know their working place, help them get
equipment ready and even have back up parts or equipment for them,
Therefore most of their time will be spent on working not on looking.
Production will be higher.

Copyright 2012 by SME